Nevine El-Aref sums up what happened on Friday 11 November on the Giza Plateau, and the loss for Egypt on that day The "Ceremony of Love" that was scheduled to be held on the footsteps of the Great Pyramid of Khufu on 11 November, and the furore it created among Egyptologists, the public and the media, has raised questions over private functions on the Giza Plateau and meditation sessions inside the Great Pyramid, as well as the roots of misoneism -- a resistance to anything new -- in Egypt and the importance of the Khufu pyramid in New Age rituals. It all began on 5 November when a Polish numerologist group posted on its website a call for people from all over the globe to come to the Great Pyramid of Khufu on 11 November for its so-called "Ceremony of Love". According to the group's belief, the ceremony would save Earth from any further cosmic changes that could lead to the destruction of the planet on 12/ 12/2012. The Polish foundation for the Support of Archaeological Research said the event organised by the Dar Swiatowida Foundation on their Cheops (Khufu) Project website for 11 November would consist of two ceremonies between 11am and midnight. The morning ceremony would be held inside the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid, where a man and a woman described as "Human Angels" would place in the sarcophagus a crystal pyramid resting on two golden bars supported by four granite cubes. The golden bars are inscribed with the Biblical verse: "Man does not live by bread alone." According to Dar Swiatowida's president, Andrzej Wojcikiewicz, the Human Angels would then meditate in the chamber for 75 minutes to energise the crystal pyramid. In the evening ceremony, which would have started at 11pm, those invited to the event would meditate hand-in-hand in a circle around the Great Pyramid so as to direct their energy of love towards the pyramid-shaped crystal in the sarcophagus. This in its turn would strengthen the energy of the pyramid, which would be connected to other pyramids all over the globe and would activate energy points, the so-called Chakras. "This should create a protective shield around Earth to protect us from any unwanted cosmic events such as sunspot activity, comets and planets that would be thrown to Earth and cause many problems," Wojcikiewicz said. He added that through this meditation and the installation of two interpenetrated pyramid-shaped crystals, produced in India out of mountain crystal, inside the granite sarcophagus in the king's burial chamber, the resulting energy would be strengthened and resurrected. This special day of 11 November 2011, Wojcikiewicz said, was a unique opportunity for people from all over the world to join in meditation in order to send the energy of love to Egypt, and particularly to the Great Pyramid. "This will be a global meditation to help Mother Earth, and to help protect the Earth and its people from further escalation of violence and cataclysms, as well as for spiritual awakening," he added. Dar Swiatowida's link with Giza dates back to 2006, when the foundation sponsored an archaeological survey carried out by Egypt's National Institute for Astronomy and Geo-physical Research on the Giza plateau and found a number of cavities and chambers underneath the entire site. Wojcikiewicz said that the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) at the time rejected a plan for excavation in that area, but that this led them in 2008 to sponsor another excavation at the Hawara necropolis in Fayoum, 90km south of Giza. The excavation was carried out by an archaeological team from Cairo University in collaboration with Wroclaw University in Poland, but in 2009 excavation was halted for unknown reasons. It was said at the time that Zahi Hawass, then secretary- general of the SCA, stopped the mission because of national security. "I do believe that the Great Pyramid was built to save Earth by a much more advanced civilisation and not by the ancients," Wojcikiewicz suggested in an interview on YouTube. He believes "they could left us the means to save the universe". "How could those ancients build the pyramid with 2,300,000 huge blocks by running them over ramps without any tools or even metals to consolidate these blocks together?" he asks. "Until now, nobody for sure knows who, how and when the pyramid was built. I am pretty sure that the pyramid was not built as a tomb for kings; it was built to save the universe and for the stability of Earth." When Egyptologists learnt of the planned ceremony, which had been given SCA approval, they rose up in arms against the event. Some saw that it is a childish game and an insult to the very symbol of Egyptian civilisation, while others alleged that it stemmed from a Jewish masonic belief that they were the pyramids' true builders, and not the ancient Egyptians, despite the fact that in the 1990s Hawass and his team discovered the pyramid builders' cemetery at Giza. Ali Radwan, head of the Arab Archaeologists Union, told Ahram Online that the SCA should forbid the event and not provide the opportunity for the "pyramid maniacs" to practise their rituals at the Great Pyramid. "Similar events were rejected before by the SCA during previous tenures," Radwan said. Conspiracy theories are rife on both sides. An SCA staff member who requested anonymity told Al-Ahram Weekly that he knew there were 1,200 Jewish Masons among the meditators, and that they wanted to install a Star of David symbol on top of the Great Pyramid. Former SCA secretary-general Abdel-Halim Noureddin was also totally opposed to the event. He told the Weekly that the Jews had been making the same pyramid claim since 1931, when members of the masonic movement considered themselves the builders of the pyramids and declared they would return one day to the set the Star of David on the Great Pyramid. Meanwhile, the 6 April movement called for a protest in Giza to prevent the event taking place. Two Facebook groups were created to distribute a petition calling for the dawn prayer to be sung at the Great Pyramid if such a ceremony took place, while other activists suggested forming a human shield around the pyramid to prevent anyone entering it. Ali El-Asfar, director or the SCA's Giza Plateau department, denied the rumours circulated in the media. He said that according to the programme provided by the ceremony's organiser, the Lili Risen Company, and which was approved by the SCA and Egyptian security authorities, it was a private meditation ceremony that was first established on the Giza plateau or inside the Khufu pyramid in the 1990s. These ceremonies were always monitored and supervised by inspectors, who would never have allowed any damage to the pyramid. "Nobody could in any way insert a star or anything else on top of or inside the pyramid," El-Asfar stressed. He pointed out that the SCA's approval for the ceremony came after it was approved by the security authorities, and said the event would have been monitored and supervised by plateau inspectors. "If something wrong took place or if any damage might have occurred the whole event would have been stopped," he said. "I cannot control anyone's belief, but I am the guardian of the pyramids and Egypt's history and will not in any way allow any wrongdoing or damage." Nevertheless, the furore over the event led SCA Secretary-General Mustafa Amin to cancel it and to close the Khufu pyramid from the evening of 10 November until the morning of 12 November. In a press release to this effect sent to the media, of which the Weekly received a copy, Amin confirmed that the event was not organised by Jewish Masons but by a Polish organisation that had requested the SCA to allow a meditation event at the Giza Pyramids. The request, the release said, was studied by the SCA's legal consultant and the security authorities. The press release stated that the event had been cancelled due to widespread rumours and the row about the religious aspects of the event. It added that all other arranged visits and private parties on 11 November had also been cancelled. Tourist agencies and companies are said to have understood the reasons for the decision. El-Asfar said that the closure led to the cancellation of 23 private visits scheduled and approved a year ago, as well as the controversial meditation ceremony itself. The action, El-Asfar continued, came following a long meeting of top SCA officials. "All the tour leaders and agencies were notified of the closure and the cancellation of their visits," El-Asfar said. Although the Khufu pyramid and the area surrounding it were closed, the rest of the Giza Plateau remained open. So why the present fuss, when previous meditation ceremonies have been held without incident on a regular basis? El-Asfar told the Weekly that in order to answer such a question one should differentiate between two occasions: private visits for meditation and a gala ceremony. He explained that the meditation ceremonies held since the 1990s were private group visits, as was the case with the 23 groups cancelled last Friday. These groups chose the special day to meditate inside the Khufu pyramid because of their belief in the pyramid's power and energy. Some, El-Asfar said, had come because 11 November was the day when World War I ended, while another group believed the day marked the end of one of the eras of Earth and the beginning of another, and that being at the pyramid for the transfer would give them the required power and energy to pass into the new era. A third group believed that the world would end on the 12th day of the 12th month of 2012, and that meditation would grant them eternity. "We used to approve such visits after the approval of the security authorities as it is a source of income for the SCA and free promotion for Egypt," El-Asfar said. Such visits are well monitored. "Their beliefs do not bother me, since everyone has freedom of faith, but what does concern me is the pyramid and its safety. If these people respect the law and the SCA's rules and don't cause any harm to the pyramid or practise any maniac rituals they are more than welcome," he told the Weekly. El-Asfar said cancelling such visits on that day was a real loss to the SCA, since each group of 50 people paid LE5,000 plus a ticket of LE60 for each visitor. However, he pointed that what had led to the closure was the fuss about the rumours concerning the ceremony regarding masonic rituals and the Star of David. "I hoped this ceremony could be held," El-Asfar said. "It would have been a great promotion for Egypt, especially in these days when the tourism rates in Egypt are in decline."
